Like it or not, the college basketball recruiting circles are run by shoe companies – most notably Nike. The Antonio Blakeney recruitment served as the best example as to how AAU organizations run things. Blakeney committed to Louisville after saying he had known where he wanted to go for the “past three months.” Just 11 days later he decommitted, saying that he rushed his decision. Not sure how you can rush a decision if he had known where he wanted to go for months. Anyway, 247Sports Recruiting Director Jerry Meyer said that basically Nike and his Nike AAU connections would blackball him from Nike-related all-star games since he had committed to Louisville, an adidas program.

Why was this brought up again? Top UofL recruiting target Maverick Rowan will play with Nike’s E1T1 AAU program on the EYBL circuit – the same program Blakeney ran with. It remains to be seem if this switch will play a role in his recruitment as his father is the point man in his process. However, at the same time, it’s certainly worth watching.